Of Antagonists and Plot Twists
by sheaflower98
Summary: When she was nine, Inez was a big believer in 'The bad guy never gets the girl' trope. Now, at sixteen, as she reads her new book under the shade of a tree, a thought pops to her head, and it won't seem to leave her alone... What made Hacker become a bad guy?


Of Antagonists and Plot Twists

 **A word of advice: Don't ever decide to watch an old favorite tv show. No matter how nostalgic you're feeling. It'll only end like this, shipping something you should have no business shipping.**

 **I don't own Cyberchase.**

When she was nine, Inez would have been happy to simply classify Hacker as a 'bad guy' and move on with her life. In her little mind back then, that would have meant that he would always lose, because bad always lost to good. No matter the situation. That was why the bad guy never got the girl, after all.

As she's grown over the years, she has learned the basics of writing books and stories. She's not too interested in becoming an author when she grows up, but writing short stories now and again is a nice hobby nonetheless. And her teacher has taught her something.

"No evil antagonist is evil without a reason. No matter what your antagonist's goal is - Assuming they are a human or something else that has rational thought - There must be a reason behind it. Even if they just want to take over the world. Why do they want to do that? There must be deeper reason than just wanting to control people. You must realize that something like that needs some sort of reason, they must be motivated by something, just like your protagonist must be..."

When she first heard her teacher say that, she had completely forgotten to consider what Hacker's reasons could be.

She, Jackie and Matt still go to Cyberspace, but now they don't just go to deal with Hacker. They now go to hang out with Digit and their other friends - Though as soon as their creepy enemy sees them, he usually ends up creating an impromptu scheme just to annoy them.

Now, she's reading an interesting story that her teacher recommended to her. The weather's unusually warm for the Autumn season, so she's taking advantage of it by sitting outside, relaxing under a tree in her backyard.

As she reads the story, she begins to compare the villain to Hacker. He's a prince that began to get jealous of his parents' power over the land, and finally slipped a poison into his mother's food one night. The father had the same poison, but once he saw his wife as she immediately got sick, he connected the dots and called for the guards, so he didn't get sick.

The protagonist is a knight who was summoned to collect the ingredients for an antidote. His love interest begged to go with him, but he refused and said it was too dangerous for her, because of the places and the distance he would have to go to collect them.

Inez can't help but be amused as she reads, thinking that the antagonist fits Hacker practically to a T.

She gets the feeling that it's supposed to be a plot twist when he kidnaps the knight's love interest in the fourth chapter, but all she sees is a boring cliche as he starts to monologue.

It isn't until she gets to chapter ten, that she suddenly realizes that the protagonist hasn't made more than three appearances. The entire story so far had mostly focused on the evil prince. Even so, she considers the character development she's seen so far.

The prince had done it because his parents had ignored him, because they focused so much on their work and never paid any sort of attention to him, and they would reject all the ideas he had for helping the kingdom. When the girl had asked why he didn't simply wait until he had gained the crown, he said that he had overheard them discussing giving the crown to his sister in their will. He had to kill them before it could become official.

As Inez considers it, she knows that even though the prince had his reasons, he certainly didn't go about the issue in the right way. Then she remembers that she had compared Hacker to the prince, and she has to wonder why Hacker had gone from his original good self, to the evil villain he was today.

When she goes to her writing class Monday after school, she talks to her teacher before the class starts.

"The book you recommended is really interesting. But I had a question"

"What is it?" the woman asks, smiling almost knowingly.

"I've gotten up to the twelfth chapter, but so far the entire story has focused on the vill- the antagonist. I was wondering if there's something I'm missing about it" she says, quickly stopping herself from saying the word 'villain'. The teacher had said that the word villain was an inaccurate and unhelpful way to describe antagonists, though Inez could never figure out what that meant.

Her teacher doesn't reply, just continues with that odd knowing smile as she pats Inez on the head.

"I knew you would think that. You seem to be the only one who can't quite grasp the real definitions of 'protagonist' and 'antagonist' in my class. I'll cover it today, don't worry Miss Garcia"

Inez can only feel even more confused as she sits down at her spot, watching as the others file in until it's time to start.

"Good afternoon, class"

"Good afternoon, Mrs Wilson" the entire class choruses in reply. Mrs Wilson smiles as she writes on the chalkboard the two words 'Protagonist' and 'Antagonist'.

"Now, for today's lesson we're going to go a bit deeper into the definitions of protagonist and antagonist. Who wants to answer the first question?"

That was the thing about this class. She always asked who wanted to answer a question before she asked it. She said it was a good way to surprise the students and provide incentive for them to memorize their facts.

Everyone in the class raises their hands, except Inez. As the teacher had said earlier, she obviously was rather confused on this subject.

Mrs Wilson called on a boy one row behind Inez.

"Colin. What is the definition of 'protagonist'?"

"A protagonist is the main character of a story, or the character that the story focuses on the most"

"Precisely" Mrs Wilson says, nodding her head encouragingly. She writes Colin's answer on the board, then turns back to the students.

"Who's next?"

Mrs Wilson goes through almost all of the students, asking questions to everyone.

"Everyone, I have a question for all of you now. I want you all to answer as best you can"

All of the students nod in reply, papers and pencils in front of them in the case that they'll need to take notes.

"Inez here has been reading a book. She came to me with a question, saying that the book was focusing more on the antagonist than the protagonist. Why do you think that could be?"

Inez hears her fellow students murmuring and speculating with each other around her, but Inez is still just as confused as when she came in - If not more so.

"Does anyone think that perhaps, Inez has mistaken the protagonist for the antagonist?"

The murmurs stop for a moment, perhaps they are just as confused as she is now. Though Inez seriously doubts that.

"Is that even possible?" one girl named Becky asks from the back.

"Well, yes. People often believe that the protagonist always has pure and good intentions, but that's certainly not the case. The definition of protagonist is simply as Colin said earlier - The main character of a story. It says nothing about them being good"

Inez hesitantly raises her hand.

"Yes, Inez? You have a question?"

"Um... Are you saying that the prince in this book is actually the protagonist? And the knight is the antagonist?"

"Yes, but no. As you read, you'll begin to see that the conflict is actually between the prince and the choices he's made regarding his future as a ruler of his kingdom. It's more of a 'Man vs. Self' type of plot"

As the students around her begin to ask more questions and have a discussion about it, Inez goes silent, her mind going over that.

She knows that in some of the past few chapters she's read, that girl that she had thought was the knight's love interest had talked to the prince, had asked him questions that he had faltered in answering or had made him question his reasoning.

Once more, Inez's mind goes to Hacker, wondering if he would be able to justify himself if asked.

"Hey, Digit?"

She and her friends are hanging out in Cyberspace that Saturday, just walking around Gollywood. Matt and Jackie ran off, because they weren't interested in the same places Inez and Digit were. Now she's decided to find out a bit more about Hacker, without her friends being around to interrupt or question her.

"Yeah? What's up Inez?"

"I was just wondering... Why do you think Hacker does what he does?"

"Huh? What do you mean?" Digit seems confused, and he has every right to be. Inez herself isn't even sure why she's so intent on thinking about Hacker's reasons, for his actions, his thoughts and past and memories.

"I mean... You know, how he goes around and tries to take over Cyberspace and different Cybersites. Why do you think he does those things?"

"Well, because he's evil!" Digit replies, as if it's the most obvious thing in the world. And seven years ago, when she was just a nine year old kid, she would have been satisfied with that. But now she thinks - She knows - That it has to go deeper than that.

But she can't press Digit for those details. He probably won't want to remember much from when he worked for Hacker anyway, since it was probably rather traumatizing for him. So she nods in agreement, laughing it off and then distracting her little bird-like friend with some star across the street.

She continues to mull over the question in her mind, only having her own thoughts to work with, and thinks that maybe she should find a way to ask Hacker himself.

It's an odd time to question his motivations, but this really is the only time she'd be with him alone. So she sits on the floor of his Grim Wreaker, tied with rope as she waits for her friends to come and save her. She's not sure if they'll break in or if they'll manage to find enough money to pay Hacker's demand. But she knows that if they do the former, it won't take long for them to arrive, so she jumps right to the chase.

"Why do you do this?"

To her surprise, he actually pauses to consider his answer.

"Because if I don't you'll probably break one of my windows and get out"

It takes her a minute to realize that he's talking about him tying her up. Inez stares at him for a while, wondering if he's avoiding the real question or really doesn't know what she was asking.

After a moment, she decides to forget it. Hacker had put some rather strict guidelines for Matt, Jackie and Digit. They're probably trying to raise the money he requested, and since she knows that they'll succeed, or that something will probably go wrong for Hacker (namely Buzz and Delete) she's not all that panicked. She glances over at her backpack that Hacker had tossed into the corner.

"Listen, I'll play along, but can I at least have my book from my backpack?"

He seems annoyed by her comment of 'playing along' but nonetheless goes to get her backpack. He reaches in and pulls out her Geometry book.

"Not that one. The one that's not for school" she says dryly. She can't help but be amused at the glare he gives her. He knows he can't hurt her, because he'd promised the others that he wouldn't if they brought his money.

So she watches as he goes through her books and finally pulls out the book she wants. The one with the prince, the one that has caused her odd thoughts for the past two weeks.

"I'm on chapter fifteen" she says, unable to stop her smile when he gives her yet another glare.

"Why should I care?" he snaps, dropping the book onto her lap.

"Well I can't hold it myself, can I?" she asks smugly. He seems even more irritated by this, but he gives in and picks up the book, flipping through it until he finds chapter fifteen. He reads aloud to her, and she can't help but think that it's so much more relaxing with someone else doing the reading. But she doesn't realize that she's so entranced by the story that she's actually staring at Hacker, a dreamy gaze as she's trapped in the story he's reading to her.

"What are you doing?" Hacker snaps when he notices her stare. She flinches, and feels herself turn red as she realizes what was happening.

"I was staring at the story, not you" she replies, because it's technically true and it's the only thing she can think to say, anyway. He gives her a disbelieving stare before he continues on reading. She's careful this time not to start with a dreamy gaze, because she's not sure what he'd begin to think a second time.

Halfway through chapter seventeen, he asks a question.

"The story focuses a lot on the villain, doesn't it?"

Inez blinks, then just lets out a small laugh. Hacker just gives her a glare, prompting her to reply.

"My teacher says that the word 'villain' is just a blanket statement for an antagonist, and is often inaccurate. And he's not the antagonist"

"Oh?" he seems interested, whether mockingly or genuinely she's not sure.

"Yeah, he was way more evil in the first several chapters, anyway. It's supposed to focus on his development, on his internal conflict as he struggles with his actions and morality"

He doesn't reply to that, in fact he seems rather deep in thought. Finally, he does reply, but only after a point where Inez worries that he's broken.

"There is a saying, an overused trope in media that says 'The villain never gets the girl'"

She's not sure what he means by that, but she responds nonetheless.

"I thought it was 'The bad guy never gets the girl'"

"Isn't that essentially the same thing?"

She watches him carefully, and he's watching her too, waiting for her reaction.

"What are you trying to say, Hacker?"

She's not sure she wants to know.

"If the word 'villain' is an inaccurate blanket statement, then what does that make the saying?"

Inez considers that for a moment. He's right, of course. She had been stuck in a black-and-white, evil-good spectrum when she was younger. That explained why she believed so fervently that Hacker was nothing more and nothing less than a bad guy.

She examines him now, in front of her. He seems vulnerable, scared even, of what she'll reply. He's interested in someone, she realizes. Someone who could classify as good, or otherwise out of his reach.

She considers it. Wicked comes to mind, but Inez dismisses the thought, because Wicked is evil and despite their breakup, Inez wouldn't say that she was out of Hacker's range.

After a moment, a prospective candidate comes to her mind, and it's rather farfetched, but also plausible at the same time.

She smiles at him, a smile that really looks more like a flirtatious smirk than anything else. She hopes she's right.

"I don't know, but it's certainly an overused plot device. Personally, I'd like a plot twist for once"

He seems genuinely surprised by that answer. Still, he gives her a smirk in reply. But before he can actually open his mouth, he gets a call.

It turns out that her friends have gathered the necessary money for her release.

So he unties her, and before he sends her off, he says that he'd like to borrow the book when she's done with it.

"No problem" she agrees, and adds that she thinks he needs some 'character development' of his own.

He gives a small laugh at that.

"Perhaps. The villain might not get the girl, but it says nothing about the reformed villain"

She smiles at that, and wholeheartedly agrees.

"And if the girl wants to help the villain with his development..."

"Then the villain would be very grateful" Hacker nods.

They've been talking for too long, she knows. Her friends expect her to run out the moment she's free, so it's only a matter of time before they come to investigate. So she heads for the door, glancing back at him only for a moment before leaving. Her friends seem to attribute her smile to the fact that she's free, and she does nothing to correct them.

Later, as they're all hanging out with Creech in Tikiville, she simply curls up under a tree and starts to finish the rest of her book. One thought is consistent in her mind as she reads.

If the villain can't get the girl, then if nothing else, the girl can get the villain.


End file.
